Kong Xiangdong, Zhong Zheng, Fang Chao
School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Biophys J. 2025 Jun 17;124(12):1995-2004. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2025.04.030. Epub 2025 May 2.
As an essential component in generating cell contractility, F-actin plays a pivotal role in collective cell migration. However, the mechanisms by which subcellular F-actin dynamics influence the collective behaviors of cell clusters across scales remain poorly understood. In this study, we developed a mechanical model to investigate how the dynamics of stress fibers and cryptic lamellipodia, prominent F-actin structures generating traction forces, regulate collective cell migration. Our results show that strengthening stress fibers significantly amplifies cell rearrangements and counteracts the high-density-induced inhibition of cell movements in the monolayer. It is attributed to the tension-caused cell elongation, which facilitates the growth of normalized mean-squared displacements in high-density cell monolayers. Moreover, the model shows that stronger stress fibers could effectively guide collaborative cell movements through enhancing the spatial correlation of maximum principal stress. Additionally, we found cryptic lamellipodia exhibit similar influence on collective cell migration. Our results bridge intracellular F-actin dynamics with collective cell migration, offering insights into the underlying mechanisms and their biological significance.
作为产生细胞收缩性的重要组成部分，F-肌动蛋白在集体细胞迁移中起着关键作用。然而，亚细胞F-肌动蛋白动力学如何跨尺度影响细胞簇集体行为的机制仍知之甚少。在本研究中，我们建立了一个力学模型，以研究应力纤维和隐蔽性片状伪足（产生牵引力的突出F-肌动蛋白结构）的动力学如何调节集体细胞迁移。我们的结果表明，强化应力纤维可显著放大细胞重排，并抵消高密度诱导的单层细胞运动抑制。这归因于张力引起的细胞伸长，其促进了高密度细胞单层中归一化均方位移的增长。此外，该模型表明，更强的应力纤维可通过增强最大主应力的空间相关性来有效引导协同细胞运动。此外，我们发现隐蔽性片状伪足对集体细胞迁移表现出类似的影响。我们的结果将细胞内F-肌动蛋白动力学与集体细胞迁移联系起来，为其潜在机制及其生物学意义提供了见解。
